Hillary rumoured to replace Joe Biden as Obama's vice president

**vector7** · August 11th, 2010, 22:27

A Clinton back in White House? Hillary rumoured to replace Joe Biden as Obama's vice president

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 1:24 AM on 11th August 2010

Former First Lady: Secretary of state Hillary Clinton is being tipped as a 'safe hands' running mate for Barack Obama

Barack Obama is considering asking his old rival Hillary Clinton to come to his rescue by becoming his vice president.
White House power brokers are pushing for Joe Biden, who is currently in the role, to be dropped in favour of the formidable Sec*retary of State and former first lady.

With his personal popularity slipping, President Obama needs a dramatic move to boost his chances of winning a second term in 2012, Washington analysts believe.

American political experts now speculate that secretary of state Clinton might replace Mr Biden on the 2012 Democratic ticket.
And the ‘dream ticket’ of Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton would revive the party’s hopes at the polls, according to one senior Democrat.

Experts predict a dismal showing for the party in November’s mid-term elections, and Mr Biden has emerged as a prime can*didate for the axe.

His tenure has been tarnished by ‘too many YouTube moments,’ the former Dem*ocrat Virginia governor Doug Wilder said.

By contrast, Mrs Clinton ‘has been nothing but a team player who has earned good marks since being asked to serve as Secre*tary of State’, he said.

Howard Fineman, Newsweek’s chief politi*cal correspondent, believes Mrs Clinton would accept the role ‘in a second’.

Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn believes that Mrs Clinton and Mr Biden should switch jobs, adding: ‘Given the com*bination of votes that she and Obama got in the 2008 primary campaign, they would be a near-unbeatable team.’

Mr Biden was caught on microphone whis*pering the f-word to Mr Obama at the signing of U.S. healthcare reforms.

He also urged a wheelchair-bound man at a rally to ‘stand up’, and had to apologise after telling Ameri*cans not to fly after the swine flu outbreak.

But the veteran former senator is an expert on foreign relations and party insiders sug*gest that he could shift seamlessly into the role of Secretary of State.

John Fortier, research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said: 'Obama is not disastrously unpopular, or even as unpopular as George W. Bush was for the final two or three years of his presidency, but he is still on the unpopular side and will be a drag on Democrats' fortunes.'
Mr Wilder said that having Mrs Clinton join the 2012 ticket would revive the Democratic Party and re-establish its working-class voters, who found her appealing during the 2012 primaries against Mr Obama.

What, get rid of this guy? President Obama may have to sideline vice president Joe Biden in a bid to strengthen his position for his 2012 re-election campaign

Pundits jumped on Mr Wilder's comments and expressed near-universal approval. On his syndicated national show, Chris Matthews of MSNBC assembled a panel to discuss the Wilder intervention.

Howard Fineman of Newsweek, a long-time Hillary watcher, said Mrs Clinton would accept a place on the 2012 ticket 'in a second'.
'The Republican attack on Obama is going to revolve around "too liberal", but also "too incompetent" '

John Heilemann, a reporter New York magazine, said the major obstacle would be to 'figure out a way for Biden to slide aside happily' - suggested that Mr Biden replace Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State.

Along the way, Mr. Heilemann outlined why President Obama might want to have a steadier hand at his side for his re-election campaign, saying: 'The Republican attack on Obama is going to revolve around "too liberal", but also "too incompetent".

'They're going to say, "Look, you hired this guy. He was too young for this job. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't have the experience, and look what's happened?".'

**Backstop** · August 11th, 2010, 23:31

I find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to believe Hillary will play second fiddle to Barry O.

My bet is that if she wants in the White House, she wants to be there as President.

**American Patriot** · August 12th, 2010, 13:08

I don't.

Her and her husband moved up in the world by assassination they say.

/chuckles

**vector7** · October 6th, 2010, 17:54

Obama-Clinton ticket 'on the table,' Woodward says

By: CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

(CNN) – Some called a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton pairing the "Dream Ticket" in 2008. It didn't happen.

But what about 2012?

"It's on the table," veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward told CNN's John King in an interview Tuesday on John King, USA. "Some of Hillary Clinton's advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012."

The scenario – whereby Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would switch positions - has been bandied about by political observers for months, seen by some as a potentially savvy strategy to gin up excitement among what appears to be a depressed Democratic base.

But it's never been clear if the idea has been actually discussed in the White House, until now.

"President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the [2008] primaries and, so they switch jobs, not out of the question, and the other interesting question is, Hillary Clinton could run in her own right in 2016 and be younger than Ronald Reagan when he was elected president."

Clinton will be 69 years old and three months in January 2017. President Ronald Reagan was just shy of his 70th birthday in January, 1980.

"Now you talk to Hillary Clinton or her advisers and they say 'no, no there's not a political consideration here,'" Woodward continued. "Of course the answer is, you point out to them that her clout around the world when she goes to Europe, Asia, anywhere is in part, not just because she's Secretary of State or because she was married to President Clinton, that people see a potential future president in her."

The latest politico to predict an Obama-Clinton ticket in 2012 was former Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card, who, during an interview with CNN, said the notion doesn't surprise him.

"That would shake things up," said Card.

**Toad** · October 6th, 2010, 18:54

I could see this as being real.

I have no idea why Obama ever selected Biden in '08. He has a well established history of always putting his foot in his mouth. Since then he's just kept adding to that history. Running again with Biden gives Obama nothing. Clinton on the other hand would play very well with the support base of the left, Obama gets something out of that. And Clinton, (hypothetically)should they win gets in as the V.P. in Obama's final term. By default she becomes the Democrat's nominee for 2016 if she wants it. She'd be all over that.

I think the Republican's would be all over that too. Not only do they get to run against Obama and his record, you get to throw a Clinton in there too to rally the conservative base against. I can't imagine a more ideal situation to pull in votes from anyone who even mildly leans to the right, or even is a true moderate.